3. Postdoctoral Program - MSRI

Evaluation #21 (This is Jesse)
1. What were the benefits of attending this type of institute?
The main benefit to me was being exposed to the method and approach of a “real”
mathematician → carefully and precisely defining terms and procedures, and axiomatically
building of a framework upon which to create a coherent and mathematical system
of theorems.
The repeated mantra that mathematics is a logical whole rather than a set of disjoint
skills and content is one I would very much like to continue to explore, internalize, and
then transmit to my students.
2. What improvements do you suggest? Please be specific.
Given that institute participants are all at “different pages” with respect to preperation,
backgroud and fluency with the material, I beleive there is value in establishing
norms for the class. That is, obviously it is Wu’s baby, and he can be “on” as long as he
see’s fit. But as for the students I would have liked a norm of “smell the air” - these were
people who don’t speak, comment, question even once - and others who took up more
than their share.
I was more able to follow lectures when I was not taking notes - For others the reverse
might be true.
More “turn and talk” time
More “Joe thinks this is , Tom thinks it isn’t ... a congruence, e.g., with whom do you
agree and why?
3. What would you like to see happen during the Saturday sessions? How
would you like them organized? Please be specific. Consider format, topics,
etc.
* in general it should be about how the material we learned here is coming alive in the
classroom.
* It would be beneficial to know/pick a specific topic or concept that we do teach, and
each T bring in materials/lesson design they might use to teach that concept, and then
share and discuss how this fits into the “Wu structure”.
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